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The steep fall on Wall Street proved a strong gravitational pull on Australian stocks Thursday with the market losing most of recent gains.
The ASX 200 gave up 85 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 3,694.
"We had a good run on commodities over the last few days and we are reversing some of those gains," IG Markets dealer...
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 Governments around the world are trying to reduce emissions
of carbon gases because these are responsible for global warming. Australia has
made the first step in this process. A large underground carbon storage
facility was opened in the southern state of Victoria,
near the town of Warrnambool, west of Melbourne. It will
capture...
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 Thousands of New Zealanders defied heavy rain on Monday to pay their
respects to the country's greatest modern-day hero, Everest conqueror
Sir Edmund Hillary, who died on January 11, as he lay in state at
Auckland's Anglican Cathedral.
The cathedral's doors will stay open all night to allow thousands
of mourners to file past the...
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 Part of the earthquake-stricken New Zealand city of Gisborne remained
behind barricades and under a state of emergency on Friday night as
civil defence chiefs told residents to check on their neighbours nearly
24 hours after a disastrous shake.
An elderly woman, who reportedly suffered a heart attack just after
the quake struck on...
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 Today, September 4 we commemorate one year from the death of
naturalist Steve Irwin.
Steve passed away last year when a stingray barb pierced his
heart as he was filming an underwater documentary.
That day Australia
went into mourning.
In Queensland's
parliament, State Premier Peter Beattie paid tribute to Mr. Irwin,...
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Two giant pandas given by China to Taiwan arrived in Taipei on Tuesday amid huge public interest in the latest sign of improving ties between the two political rivals.
The pandas, named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, arrived on board a chartered EVA Air jet, following a three-hour flight from a panda reserve in China's Sichuan...
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For six decades, China tried in vain to recover Taiwan with military force and political rhetoric. Now it has changed its tactics, by sending Taiwan a pair of giant pandas to win over the hearts of Taiwan people.
The tactic has worked even before the two panda bears arrived in Taipei Tuesday. In the past month, news about the two...
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"Christmas greetings from the banana republic called Belgium."
The text message arrived on this correspondent's mobile phone on Monday, sent by a Belgian friend not normally characterized by her interest in politics.
And it put into words a widespread feeling of weariness and deja vu as the country found itself looking...
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Shareholders of Britain's Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) Friday overwhelmingly approved a mammoth merger with Lloyds TSB bank amid further stockmarket turmoil. The merger, agreed at the height of banking crisis in September, was backed by 84 per cent of individual shareholders at a meeting in Birmingham, HBOS said. The link-up will...
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Spain's opposition Thursday expressed concern over the possibility of the oil and gas company Repsol YPF coming partly under Russian control.
Companies from outside the European Union should not get involved with strategic sectors in Spain, Cristobal Montoro of the conservative People's Party (PP) said amid reports that the Russian...
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French bank BNP Paribas will pay 14.5 billion euros (19.7 billion dollars) to take over the majority of the troubled insurance and banking giant Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg, BNP Paribas said on Monday.
The deal, which involves 9 billion euros' worth of shares and 5.5 billion euros in cash, includes the purchase of 75 per cent of...
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Eighteen clinics were Monday being set aside in Hong Kong to treat children who may have been infected by tainted milk imported from China.
Seven special assessment centres will also open from Tuesday morning to do detailed examination on suspected cases with priority given to high-risk infants, Health Secretary York Chow...
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Two brothers were arrested in a scandal over contaminated baby milk in China, as a second infant died, state-run media said Monday.
Authorities said the number of babies who fell ill with kidney stones after being fed with contaminated baby milk produced by the Chinese dairy San Lu rose to 580. Two infants died.
The brothers from...
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German electronics giant
Siemens AG could face industrial action as the group prepared Tuesday
to unveil a tough restructuring plan aimed at slashing 17,000 jobs
worldwide. The announcement by Siemens chief Peter Loescher
that the Munich- based group proposes to cut 4 per cent of the group's
global 435,000- strong workforce comes...
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A culture of bribery and impunity flourished at German corporate giant Siemens AG over the past decade despite repeated warnings from outside and inside the firm, according to US court documents.
The details were released Monday as Siemens pleaded guilty in US District Court in Washington to a massive global corruption scandal...
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The crisis in world financial markets has its roots in declining home values in the US real-estate market which began in late 2006 and led to a wave of foreclosures and defaults on home loans.
The loans, many to borrowers with poor credit, were bundled into assets that began to weigh heavily on banks' balance sheets around the...
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A leading Wall Street broker has been arrested on suspicion of conducting a 50-billion-dollar fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Former Nasdaq chairman Bernard L Madoff, who was a leading trader on the New York exchange for 50 years, was turned in to federal agents by his sons for running what they said he called a...
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Troubled media giant Tribune Company is consulting with bankruptcy experts to consider its options in the face of 13 billion dollars in debt and plummeting advertising revenue, the Chicago-based firm said late Sunday.
In an article on the website of its flagship newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, a spokesman described an "uncertain...
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Jerry Yang, who helped kick start the internet revolution in 1995 as co-founder of web portal Yahoo, is stepping down as the company's chief executive.
The announcement by the ailing internet giant came after months of falling revenue, fierce proxy battles and a series of botched negotiations that scuttled what now seems to have been...
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The Houston Rockets picked up the win, but may have lost one of their All-Stars, indefinitely.
Argentina's Luis Scola scored a season-high 23 points, and the Rockets pulled away in the second half without injured Tracy McGrady to roll past the slumping Oklahoma City Thunder 100-89 on Monday night.
"Luis made big plays for us...
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US banking giant Citigroup said Monday in New York that it was cutting some 50,000 jobs from its international workforce after suffering massive losses as a result of the global financial crisis.
The bank was planning to cut costs by 20 per cent, it said Monday.
The bank cut more than 23,000 jobs earlier in the year. Monday's...
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US retail giant Wal-Mart reported Thursday that its surplus in the third quarter gained nearly 10 per cent, but that the company is now more cautious about its full-year prospects amid the economic downturn.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said its surplus came to 3.14 billion dollars in the quarter, on sales of 98.64 billion...
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US media giant Time Warner Inc. on Wednesday reported a drop in third quarter earnings, and lowered its 2008 profit expectations, citing the costs of restructuring.
The world's largest media company said net income came to 1.07 billion dollars in the third quarter, off slightly from 1.09 billion dollars in the same 2007...
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Microsoft released key details Tuesday of the next generation of software that it hopes will run the world's computers.
The software giant, whose dominance is under threat, said Windows 7 will replace the disappointing Windows Vista in January 2010.
Microsoft said the new operating system was designed to function like a tighter...
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Insurance giant American International Group Inc, bailed out of a cash-flow crisis last month by a loan that temporarily made the US government its majority shareholder, said Monday that it would stop lobbying in Washington.
A spokesman said that the company's Washington office would continue to monitor federal lawmaking to assess...
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US banking giant JPMorgan Chase reported Wednesday net income of 527 million dollars in the third quarter of 2008, plunging 84 per cent year-on-year.
But the results were better than analysts' predictions, remaining in the black despite the severe financial industry and subprime mortgage crisis sweeping the US banking sector.
The...
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John McCain did not mince words in his reaction to an important Supreme Court decision in June on the rights of suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
McCain called the 5-4 the ruling "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," adding that it would result in the courts being flooded by a...
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US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer Inc. is closing out the early-stage development of at least 11 medications in order to focus on more profitable drugs, media reports said Tuesday.
The financial newswire Bloomberg cited a memo sent to employees on September 25 in which the world's largest drug company would be ending the early...
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US banking giant Citigroup Inc will buy the bulk of the operations of fourth-largest bank Wachovia Corp, the latest consolidation move under government watch in the ongoing credit crisis.
Citigroup will buy the banking business of Wachovia and get government help in absorbing some of the losses related to the subprime-mortgage market,...
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The fallout from the largest-ever US bank failure rippled through markets on Friday after federal regulators late Thursday shut down the country's largest savings and loan, Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu).
The firm's assets were immediately sold to banking giant JP Morgan Chase & Co for 1.9 billion dollars, creating the largest US...
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It is a dramatic race against time - while Washington fights a battle over a mammoth rescue plan for the financial sector, the credit crisis is bringing down one US bank after another.
The latest victim was the country's once-leading savings bank, Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu). Federal regulators late Thursday shut down the...
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US stocks fell sharply on Wall Street's opening bell Wednesday after the Federal Reserve agreed to make an 85-billion- dollar emergency loan to struggling insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points, some 2 per cent, within minutes of trading. The broader Standard...
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The US financial crisis Monday pulled Germany's bellwether DAX stock index below the level of 6,000 for the first time in nearly two years, with financial stocks losing the most in early trading.
Among the hardest-hit stocks were Commerzbank, trading near 16.30 euros, down 6.7 per cent, the giant insurer Allianz, at around 104.00...
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Home from a week-long trip to Europe and the
Middle East, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama turned his
attention back to the struggling US economy and met Monday with a
collection of top economic officials. Republican rival John
McCain spoke of his own plans to combat surging energy prices at a
townhall meeting...
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Former civil rights lawyer Revius Ortique Jr., who became the first black
justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court, died Sunday. He was 84.
It appears that Ortique died in Baton
Rouge from complications with a stroke he suffered
June 14, current Justice Kitty Kimball told the Associated Press.
“I think he was one of the finest...
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 A large crane collapsed in New York City,
Manhattan on
Friday, killing one person and damaging an apartment building, emergency
services said, according to Reuters. It appears that one person died in the
collapse shortly after 8 a.m. EDT, the New York City Fire Department said.
The crane smashed into “The Electra” apartment...
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 Politicians, religious and conservative
groups’ representatives are trying to get an initiative on the November ballot
to block a recent state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage
in the Golden State. The initiative is expected to
qualify for the ballot after June 16, when the court’s decision is scheduled to
take...
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 Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the leader of a long-lasting political dynasty was hospitalized on Saturday at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, after suffering a seizure. At this moment, the doctors are trying to find out which are the causes of his illness.The senator suffered two seizures: the first one, at his home in Cape...
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 Global warming threatens the ribbon seal. Other special species
need protection and federal scientists have already taken into consideration
listing the ribbon seal under the Endangered Species Act. Chinese River
Dolphin, Elephant, Giant pangolin, Golden Marmoset, Gorilla, Steller Sea Lion, Orangutan
and Tiger are mammals protected...
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A giant crane collapsed Saturday afternoon at a construction
site on Manhattan’s East
Side, killing four construction workers and injuring more than 10
other people, officials report. Mayor Michael Bloomberg named the crush one of New York City's worst
construction accidents.
“It is a tragic event,” he said in a news conference....
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 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama finally agreed on something. Both Democratic presidential candidates rejected the proposition launched by the Florida Democrats to rerun the state’s primary election by mail.The Florida Democrats made public the idea that would get them out of the failed presidential contest. Clinton won Florida primary...
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 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reached a deal to extend
health insurance to most of the 7 million Californians who are not
covered.
The 14.7-billion-dollar compromise deal passed the state Assembly
Monday night on a vote of 46-31, with all Schwarzenegger's Republican
Party colleagues voting against it. The deal will be...
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Two giant pandas sent as a goodwill gift to Taiwan from China will make their debut at Taipei Zoo on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 26, a spokesman said Thursday.
"The month-long quarantine for the pair at the Taipei Zoo will end on January 23 and we plan to formally introduce them to the public...
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Employees of India's software major Satyam, that has been rocked by a 1.45-billion-dollar accounting fraud, were uncertain about their future as business leaders worried about the scam's impact on corporate India, media reports said Thursday.
Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju quit Wednesday after admitting that the company, India's...
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After the Taipei Zoo received two giant pandas from China, another Taiwan zoo said Friday it is seeking to receive a pair of pandas from China.
The Leofoo Village Theme Park in Hsinchu, western Taiwan, which applied for two Chinese pandas but lost to the Taipei Zoo, said it hopes that China can give Taiwan another pair of...
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Japanese auto giant Toyota on Friday began a recall of nearly 122,000 cars which may have a fault that could cause loss of steering control, the company said.
Toyota's joint venture in the north-eastern city of Tianjin, the Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Company, said a total of 121,930 vehicles contained a fault that could cause...
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Two giant pandas given by China to Taiwan arrived in Taipei Tuesday afternoon amid huge public interest in the latest sign of improving ties between the two political rivals.
The pandas, named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, arrived on board a chartered EVA Air jet, following a three-hour flight from a panda reserve in China's Sichuan...
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Japanese automaker Mazda and electronics giant Sharp on Friday announced major reductions in production due the ongoing world financial downturn.
Mazda said it would be reducing production by more than expected due to the ongoing financial crisis in the world car industry, stating that 100,000 units cut by the end of the business...
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A 15-year-old angler in South Africa's Western Cape province wrestled with a 2-metre-long ragged-tooth shark for over an hour after inadvertently reeling in the big fish that then swung around and bit him, leaving him in need of 47 stitches.
In a tale reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, in which an elderly Cuban...
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Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp announced Tuesday plans to cut 8,000 jobs worldwide as a result of the global economic crisis.
The world's second-largest maker of consumer electronics hopes to save more than 100 billion yen (1.1 billion dollars) by the measure, which affects about 4 per cent of its 160,000-strong global...
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Hong Kong - Three Chinese astronauts who took part in the country's first spacewalk arrived in Hong Kong Friday for a four-day visit that will include talks to schoolchildren and a variety show.
The space men - known as taikonauts in China - are in a 40-strong delegation from the Shenzhou-7 manned space mission that also includes the...
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Cathay Pacific Airways said Wednesday that it has scrapped the traditional end-of-year bonus for all its Hong Kong staff in a cost-cutting measure sparked by the global economic crisis.
Chief executive Tony Tyler blamed the move on the difficulties the airline was facing because of fuel price hikes earlier this year and the...
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Taiwan stocks tumbled nearly 4 per cent in mid-day trading Tuesday in reaction to Wall Street falls caused by US banking giant Citigroup's announcement of massive lay-offs.
By mid-session, the TAIEX benchmark index dropped 174.75 points, or 3.94 per cent, to 4,265.05.
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Suzuki Motors Corp bought back its 3.02-per-cent stake from the US auto giant General Motors Crop (GM), the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.
The purchase of all the 16,413,000 shares came to about 22.37 billion yen (230.7 million dollars), Suzuki said.
Suzuki now owns about 20 per cent of its own outstanding shares, while GM lost...
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Taiwan stocks finished 3 per cent lower Tuesday as uncertainties over the island's and the global economy dampened investor sentiment, dealers said.
The benchmark Taiex index dropped 134.62 points, or 3.03 per cent, to close at 4,305.18.
Taiex opened sharply lower in reaction to Wall Street's overnight fall, caused by US...
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Hong Kong stocks sunk 4.5 per cent lower Tuesday amid increasing pessimism sparked by news of layoffs in the financial sector.
The Hang Seng Index lost 613 points to close the day at 12,915. Turnover was 44.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (5.7 billion US dollar).
Analysts said investors were disheartened by news of job losses with the...
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Suzuki Motor Corp has agreed to buy back its 3.02-per-cent stake from the US auto giant General Motors Corp (GM), the Japanese automaker said Monday.
Suzuki was expected to buy back 16.41 million shares, which are worth 22.37 billion yen (230.7 million dollars), from GM unit Controladora General Motors SA de CV through non-cross...
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Tokyo stocks ended Tuesday trading lower after the US market declined overnight on grim earnings outlooks and the yen's advance against other currencies.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 272.13 points, or 3 per cent, to close at 8,809.3.
The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also dropped 27.29 points, or 2.98...
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German chemical giant Bayer on Friday formally launched production at a new plant in Shanghai with the capacity to produce 350,000 tons annually of diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI).
"The new world-scale plant is the largest MDI facility of its kind in the world," Bayer said a press release issued in Shanghai.
It...
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As house sales and prices tumble in China amid heightened uncertainty brought by the global financial turmoil, millions of would-be first-time buyers are locked in a standoff with giant, government-backed property developers.
"Developers expect the government to save the market and loosen the control of property loans,"...
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Indian information technology major Tata Consultancy Services (TSC) announced Wednesday it would acquire Citigroup's India-based outsourcing arm in an all-cash deal estimated at 505 million dollars.
TCS signed an agreement with Citigroup Inc to acquire its entire interest in India-based Citigroup Global Services Limited (CGSL), the...
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Pablo Fierro came to Washington from Philadelphia for a rally against the proposed 700-billion-dollar financial bailout, which the House of Representatives could vote on Friday.
He held up an orange sign: "No to the bankers' coup d'etat."
Thursday's rally within shouting distance of the US Capitol was organized by a...
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Skype, the online text message and voice service, acknowledged Friday that its Chinese partner had been archiving politically sensitive text messages.
Skype president Josh Silverman said the company was unaware that the internet chat of users in China, especially political discussions, was being stored on computer servers by...
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An Indian court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Hollywood studio giant Warner Bros against the makers of a Bollywood film called Hari Puttar, news reports said.
Warner Bros, which hold rights to the blockbuster Harry Potter films, alleged copyright violation - saying the title of the Indian film was too similar.
Justice...
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As many as 1,253 babies had become ill with contaminated baby milk produced by the Chinese dairy San Lu, authorities reported Monday.
The Chinese Health Ministry reported that 53 young children were in critical condition with kidney stones from drinking milk contaminated with the banned chemical melamine.
Of the 1,253 children...
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Indonesian police said Friday they were investigating two suspected bomb blasts near a mine operated by US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc in the country's easternmost province Papua.
Company spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said no one was injured in the blasts, took place early riday and that operations were not...
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The New Zealand Parliament on Thursday passed a law designed to combat global warming that was expected to raise the cost of just about everything and nobody knows by how much.
The law establishing a trading scheme that puts a price on emissions of greenhouse gases is bitterly opposed by most of New Zealand's business sectors,...
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The attention of the entire country rests on the sleepy-hollow constituency of Permatang Pauh, where a political battle of epic proportions will culminate next week in a by-election pitting Malaysia's ruling government against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Three candidates are vying for the parliamentary seat Tuesday, but the real...
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Australia laid out plans Friday for a national
scheme for carbon-emissions trading it hopes will help slow climate
change without crashing the national economy or handing a competitive
advantage to other countries. The scheme is outlined in a
report delivered to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by top economist Ross
Garnaut. It would...
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More than 17 million eligible voters will decide today who
will be Taiwan’s next
president and stick whether with a party who strained links with China or switch to one willing to reduce the
tensions between Taiwan
and their giant neighbor. The two aspirants for presidency are Frank Hsieh who
leads the pro-independence Democratic...
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 Despite international opposition a defiant Japan embarked on
its largest whaling expedition in decades Sunday, targeting protected humpbacks
for the first time since the 1960s. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited the
fleet offshore.
Bid farewell in a festive ceremony in the southern port of
Shimonoseki, four ships headed for the...
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 Hundreds of rescuers on canoes and sailing boats Sunday re-launched a
massive search mission for over 300 fishermen listed as missing since
the tropical storms hit the swampy coast.
Army choppers buzzed overhead dropping lunch boxes and medicine over the remote lush villages now turned into a wasteland.
Two navy ships scoured the...
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 A powerful tropical cyclone struck the southern Bangladesh coast
Thursday forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes
after the peripheral stormy winds sparked giant waves and floods on the
off-shore islands, officials said.
One million people living in fragile coastal villages were
evacuated to safe locations...
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 Three people died and 31 were injured, seven seriously, after hundreds
of shoppers tried to force their way into a Carrefour supermarket
promotion on Saturday in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing,
the government said on Sunday.
The crush began just after 8 am Saturday when the store in
Chongqing's Shapingba district...
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Sri Lankan rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran vowed to fight on after suffering one of the biggest losses in the 25-year armed struggle to carve out an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
As rebels mourned the death of a key political leader Sunday, police also found five...
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According to local police reports, 14 children from a New
Delhi sweatshop at the centre of a scandal involving
US clothing giant Gap have been rescued yesterday.
Despite reports over the weekend that a Gap supplier had
sub-contracted work to the illegal sweatshop in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi,
Indian police did not raid...
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 At least 12 people died and dozens are still missing after a passenger ferry sank Thursday in central Philippines.The MV Blue Water Princess went under in the early hours off the coast of San Francisco, about 140 miles south-east of Manila in the Quezon province. According to the coast guard, 129 people have been rescued, but another 115...
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While Ukraine and Russia remain at loggerheads over gas supplies and many European states feel the chill as a result, the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been able to watch from the sidelines in relative comfort despite sub-zero temperatures with their own gas supplies unaffected.
Despite being former Soviet...
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A giant wind turbine in Britain has been wrecked after probably being hit by an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), the Sun newspaper reported Thursday.
Locals living near the wind farm in Lincolnshire, in the east of England, reported seeing "strange lights" streaking towards the tall generator during the night on...
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Ratiopharm, one of Germany's best-known drug companies, was put up for sale Wednesday, two days after its struggling owner committed suicide by throwing himself under a train.
Adolf Merckle, 74, a billionaire who was formerly Germany's fifth- richest man, killed himself Monday after months of pleading with banks to throw him a...
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Europe tapped into its gas reserves and began taking emergency steps Wednesday after Russia cut all supplies to the continent via Ukraine amid an escalating dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
Hungary, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey and most of the Balkan nations were among the hardest hit by the drop in Russian gas, which has...
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Europe tapped into its gas reserves and began taking emergency steps Wednesday after Russia cut all supplies to the continent via Ukraine amid an escalating dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
Hungary, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey and most of the Balkan nations were among the hardest hit by the drop in Russian gas, which has...
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The Hungarian minister responsible for energy matters said on Monday that Ukraine had informed the Hungarian government of its intention to reduce gas flow to Hungary by almost a quarter.
Speaking to the press after meeting with the prime minister, Csaba Molnar said that Ukraine had informed Hungary of its intention to reduce the...
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